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HUMANISM 


by 
CURTIS W. REESE 


THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 


CHICAGO 1926 LONDON 


COPYRIGHT BY 
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 
CHICAGO 


INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS 


SIGNIFICANT and unmistakable signs appear in increasing 
number on the widening horizon of the religious life. In con- 
tent, outlook, and purpose, religion is being humanized. The 
chief and avowed purpose of religion is coming to be the build- 
ing of personality and the shaping of institutions to this end. 


Consequently, the terminology of religion is changing. The 
nomenclature of the old theology, which connotes the submis- 
sion rather than the expansion of personality, is found to be 
utterly inadequate to express and serve humanistic religion. In 
many churches are to be found sermons, prayers, hymns, and 
benedictions: couched in the language of science, psychology, 
and social well-being. 


Temples, synagogues, and churches are examining their tech- 
nical equipment and practice. Methods of organization and exe- 
cution long familiar in the business world are being found 
effective in institutional religious procedure. Religion is being 
organized for greater human usefulness. The institutions of 
religion are forging their way into positions of social, moral, 
and spiritual leadership, where they rightfully belong. 

In my opinion the world can never get along without relig- 
ion; but it wants a religion whose impulses, worths, and ideals 
are suitable to the needs of each new age. MHence the recon- 
struction of religious content is constantly necessary. The 
present age is pre-eminently humanistic in its point of view. 
Consequently religion needs humanizing. The essays that fol- 
low are experiments in this direction. 


I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to Studies in 
Humanism, by Schiller; Reconstruction in Philosophy, by 
Dewey; Idealism and the Modern Age, by Adams; The Next 
Step in Religion, by Sellars; Human Nature and Its Remaking, 
by Hocking; The Philosophy of Humanism, by Haldane; The 
Rational Good, by Hobhouse. 


CHICAGO. Curtis W. REEsE. 





CONTENTS 


PAGE 
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HUMANIZING RELIGION (concluded).. 27 
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EAU MANIZING OVLYSTICISM (; yer 2 wis eeee 41 
HuMANIZING HuMAN NATURE....... 47 
ELUUMANIZING IcIBERALISM  \ 1:32. ./<'s Mee 36 
HU@MANIZING THE CHURCH...) .).\..\G0. 64 





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HUMANISM 


PART I 


HUMANISM OUTLINED 


1. The Absolute Umiqueness of each Person's Phil- 
osophy. 


PHILOSOPHY is the outgrowth of the 
A unique nature and experience of the philoso- 
pher. The unique human equation cannot be re- 
moved from a philosophical system. Therefore, phil- 
osophy is not one but many. This pluralism of 
human outlook shows the futility of seeking a uni- 
versally valid cosmic point of view. Hence the 
humanist is at once egocentric in that he consciously 
looks out upon life through his own windows, and 
essentially modest in that he is unwilling to read 
the impressions and ideas of individual persons into 
cosmic life as a whole. So he regards philosophy as 
a useful instrument, but as basicly personal and 
improvable. 


HUMANISM 


2. Life Is in the Making and We Are Participants 
in the Process. 


(a) The complement of the uniqueness of each 
person’s philosophy is in the multiple and evolving 
nature of life itself. Life is a complex of personal 
and other-than personal processes, which so inter- 
penetrate that neither can be regarded as “higher”’ 
than the other. Hence “personality” cannot be 
iret cepted and held ef be more worthful than the 

“Impersonal processes.” 


(b) To the humanist creative evolution is a fact, 
not a mere figure of speech. He takes evolution 
seriously, and so refuses to “sew up the Universe” 
or to “put the end in the beginning.” New levels 
of creation actually result in new things, not in a _ 
mere readjustment of old things. 


(c) The cause of the evolutionary process is not 
a push from below nor a pull from above but a 
creative impulse within. Life processes are not 
mechanistic, but organic. A machine is built of in- 
flexible parts; an organism is flexible and self-regu- 
lative. The moves of the parts of machinery are 
caused by anterior moves. The moves of the parts 
of an organism are caused by anterior moves, by 
inner changes, and by future possibilities, that is, by 
ideas and ideals. The humanist believes mightily 
in the causal nature of things yet to be. 


HUMANISM OUTLINED 3 


3. The Intelligent Control of Materials, Processes 
and Ideals for Human Ends. 


Humanism is not merely a method of solving the 
problem of knowing, but an attitude towards the 
problem of making life rich and full and glorious. It 
finds the test of worth in contribution to human 
well-being. Its basic method of personal and social 
progress is intelligent co-operation with and control 
of life processes. The technique of co-operation 
and control must be worked out experimentally, and 
altered in the light of subsequent experience. But 
always the primary aim is central, viz., human well- 
being. 

More in detail, the fundamentals of humanism 
are: (1) the authority of evidence, (2) the suprem- 
acy of intelligence, (3) the validity of freedom, (4) 
the leadership of the competent, and (5) the com- 
monwealth of man. Let us see what these funda- 
mentals involve. 


I. Tuer AUTHORITY OF EVIDENCE 


Man has always tended to rely on authority of 
one sort or another. With some men, authority 
has rested in various externals—as oracles, seers, 
teachers, institutions, books, creeds, and the like. 
With others, authority has been internal—as con- 
science, inner light, sense of ought, pure reason, 


4 HUMANISM 


and the like. But the tendency is more and more 
to rely on evidence; that is, on facts reasonably in- 
terpreted. Throughout practical life the authority 
of evidence is very generally accepted. Through- 
out the world of science evidence is the sole author- 
ity. Jurisprudence presupposes loyalty to evidence. 
It has been said that the most important of all dis- 
tinctions is that between the questions: Might it 
not be so? and What evidence is there that it is so? 
Thomas Huxley said, ‘““The deepest sin against the 
human mind is to believe things without evidence.” 

Religious beliefs for the most part have been 
founded not on carefully weighed evidence but on 
uncriticised desire, ecstatic experience, and false 
logic. Authoritarian creeds usually consist primar- 
ily of pronouncements in regard to things unknown 7 
if not unknowable, and secondarily with man’s con- 
duct in view of the primary pronouncements. But 
thus far there is not a shred of competent evidence 
in regard to the nature and purpose of ultimate real- 
ity. Hence a conduct-creed based on such pro- 
nouncements is a house of straw on shifting sand. 
Only man’s sound instincts have saved him from the 
utter scandal of committing his body as well as his 
soul to such precarious dwellings. A healthy nat- 
ure has saved many a man from the logical conse- 
quences of his formal professions. 

So unfounded in point of evidence are the author- 
itarian systems of religion that in my judgment they 
may well be left out of account in the new formula- 


HUMANISM OUTLINED 5 


tion. We do not need a paraphrase of Calvinism, 
an anemic counterfeit orthodoxy, but a new depart- 
ure that will depart as far from the creeds of the 
pre-scientific age as can be justified by the evidence 
at hand. This may reduce the number of our be- 
liefs; but it is better to have fewer beliefs than to 
have so many that are not true. 


The genuine humanist is willing to follow the evi- 
dence wherever its reasonable interpretation may 
lead. He makes no reservations. There are no for- 
bidden fields. Though the evidence slay him, yet 
will he follow it, firm in the belief that fact is bet- 
ter than fiction, that truth is better than error, that 
the uneasy struggle for knowledge is better than 
the peace that possesseth understanding. In fact, 
he wants very little to do with the peace that passeth 
understanding; he wants a peace that is understand- 
able and that is understood. 


Il. THe SUPREMACY OF INTELLIGENCE 


Closely related to the authority of evidence is the 
supremacy of intelligence. The function of evi- 
dence is to reveal the truth. The function of intelli- 
gence is to control conduct in harmony with the 
desirable possibilities revealed by the truth. 

The acceptance of the supremacy of intelligence 
has far-reaching consequences. It means a break 


6 HUMANISM 


with the age-long habit of conformity to precedent. 
It means also a skeptical attitude towards one’s own 
bias, intuition, and pure reason. Intelligence ac- 
cepts the testimony of the fathers, the history of 
institutions, and systems of logic as evidence of 
what has been, but not as authority for what should 
be. Intelligence is intolerant both of purely exter- 
nal authority—including precedent as such; and of 
purely internal authority—including bias, intuition, 
and pure reason. But intelligence gives due con- 
sideration to all that which when critically consid- 
ered properly bears on any proposed conduct. 

Intelligence applied to any given problem involves, 
(1) the collation of all pertinent facts, (2) fair 
weighing and ordering of the facts, (3) definite un- 
derstanding of a goal that is both desirable and pos- 
sible in view of the facts, and (4) the technical skill 
to enlist and direct all available forces in the achieve- _ 
ment of the desired goal. This is human engineer- 
ing. 

How different is this method of intelligence from 
that ordinarily in operation! Ordinarily we “catch 
an idea,” “jump at conclusions,” “take chances,” or 
revel in mystical intoxication. It is not too much 
to say that with the exception of a few noble ven- 
tures the human race has never yet tried to apply 
intelligence to its problem of conquering the world 
and of living an abundant life. 

Suppose we studied the race problem as thor- 
oughly as an architect plans a steel structure; sup- 


99 66 


HUMANISM OUTLINED A 


pose we attacked the problem of education as com- 
prehensively as an international banking house sur- 
veys the resources and needs of the people it serves; 
suppose we set about production and distribution 
with the exactness of the mathematicians who meas- 
ure and weigh the stars; and while we are suppos- 
ing, let us try to imagine what could be done for 
human justice and happiness if the government of 
the world were a science instead of a system of con- 
flicting ambitions. As a matter of fact the present 
state of knowledge gives reasonable ground for the 
fervent hope that we shall yet intelligently control 
our social destiny on this planet. 


Ii. THE VALIDITY OF FREEDOM 


Freedom is a much abused term. It is frequently 
used indiscriminately as a synonym for caprice and 
license. Without entering here into the intermin- 
able discussion of freedom vs. determinism, suffice it 
to say that beyond all actions growing out of in- 
herent trends and environmental pressure there is 
a wide realm in which the exercise of freedom is not 
only possible but necessary to noble conduct. Into 
this realm we throw artificial human restrictions 
about freedom at the peril of all that is finest in 
personality. 

Freedom from hampering human restrictions is 
prerequisite to effective and creditable conduct. It 


8 HUMANISM 


should be the definite policy of all instituttons— 
state, school, church, home—to restrict social inhi- 
bitions and compulsions to the lowest possible mini- 
mum consistent with the public welfare. No man is 
at his best save when he is free. 


Thus far in history it has been found safe and 
wise to enlarge the boundaries of human freedom. 
Patriarchs, barons, kings, and priests were all shorn 
of authority without any of the predicted catastro- 
phies resulting, or if they resulted they were not 
of long continuation. Slaves have been freed, suf- 
frage has been extended, bills of rights have been 
achieved, constitutions have been made responsive 
to the public will, and still the social structure holds 
together. Indeed, the very life of organized society 
now seems to depend more and more on the free 
action of free peoples. The trend of current social 
evolution is definitely in the direction of greater 
freedom for all people. 

Humanists encourage the free interplay of free ~ 
minds and the general extension of the realm of 
free behavior. 


IV. THe LEADERSHIP OF THE COMPETENT 


A superficial understanding of democracy has 
caused many people to arrive at the conclusion that 
democracy discounts leadership and depends primar- 


HUMANISM OUTLINED 9 


ily on the spontaneous popular will. This conclu- 
sion is found to be erroneous when we understand 
that true democracy is not primarily a method but 
a spirit, a goal, a gospel. 

The humanist insists that in democracy competent 
leadership is a matter of first importance. The great 
mass of the people will follow some sort of leader- 
ship. In the absence of competent leadership (and 
sometimes in spite of it) they will follow dema- 
-gogues and charlatans. In fact, one of the great- 
est curses today is the prevalence of incompetent but 
maenetic public figures. A striking presence covers 
a mass of incompetence. The funeral of many 
statesmanlike proposals has been preached by in- 
competent but volatile opponents. 

We must learn to distinguish between spurious 
and genuine leadership. That is to say, we must 
learn to examine for ourselves the basal facts at 
issue and the reasoning processes of our leaders. 
Of course, it is not possible for all of us to famil- 
iarize ourselves with all details of the subjects pre- 
sented for consideration; but we can and should 
know enough general principles to distinguish be- 
tween the experts and the fakers, between mature 
judgments and airy romance. 

We must not only distinguish competent experts 
but we must learn to use them in the social as well 
as in the physical sciences. We examine the cre- 
dentials of an engineer before we employ him to 
construct a bridge or a dam. Why should we take 


10 HUMANISM 


chances on the men we select to enact and adminis- 
ter our laws? When social situations need adjust- 
ing we should employ experts just as we do in tun- 
neling a mountain. Until we form this habit we 
are children directed by impulse and led by fancy. 
The day the world begins consciously to depend on 
the consensus of opinion of competent commissions 
then will begin the manhood of humanity. 


V. THE COMMONWEALTH OF MAN 


A worth-while world order must be based on the 
conviction of the worth of human personality, of 
the world-wide community of interest, and of the 
practicability and necessity of the human direction 
of social progress. A worth-while religion must 
have human life as its aim, and the fulfilment of 
human life as its supreme test of values. All other 
considerations whether of an other-worldly or of a 
materialistic character are of secondary importance. 
At the fiery altar of human life must be tested every 
idea, every symbol and every institution. 

The building of the commonwealth of man re- 
quires the conscious dependence of the race on the 
human control of human destiny on this planet, sub- 
ject always to the possibilities inherent in the nat- 
ural order. The technique of such control involves 
many factors which must be experimentally worked © 


HUMANISM OUTLINED 11 


out through the years, but the indispensable mini- 
mum requirements are: (1) universal education, 
(2) social guarantees, and (3) world organization. 

Only an educated people can establish and main- 
tain a commonwealth. (a) Educational standards 
must be raised, (b) educational opportunities uni- 
versalized, (3) compulsory education revised up- 
ward, (d) the technique of determining potential 
qualities developed, and (e) persons showing un- 
usual potentialities afforded the utmost opportunity 
they are capable of using. 

At best the risks of life are many and great. No 
man can stand alone. Mutual aid is a factor of the 
utmost importance. A new world order wherein 
human life shall be the first concern requires not 
only equality of opportunity, not only co-operation 
in the use of opportunity, but also social guaran- 
tees against the ill effects of misfortune. Mankind 
must unite to beat back from the doorsteps of the 
world the terrors of accident and unemployment, of 
improvidence and sickness, of old age and death. 
Chance almsgiving and even organized philanthropy 
are plainly inadequate. The necessity of a compre- 
hensive plan of social insurance involving dignified 
and equitable preventive and redemptive methods, 
is increasingly evident. Whether social guarantees 
should be administered through private and frater- 
nal concerns publicly controlled, or through govern- 
mental agencies, or both, is a matter of expediency. 
The thing of chief concern is the recognition and 


12 HUMANISM 


application of inter-dependence as the law of social 
life. 

Manifestly the world must be managed co-opera- 
tively. The peoples and the nations are intertwined 
and are forever inseparable. No nation or people 
can prosper permanently at the cost of any other 
nation or people. All the world goes up or down 
together. We are made one by the economic inter- 
ests of every land, by the bonds of knowledge and 
literature, by a thousand necessities of peaceful and 
happy living, and by the holy stream of blood that 
courses through all mankind. Wise men will accept 
the world-wide community of interest as a fact and 
good men will rejoice in its truth. 


PART II 
HUMANIZING RELIGION 


ELIGION is associated with the best that man 

does or thinks or dreams. Around institutions of 
religion hover hallowed memories, noble sentiments, 
and lofty ideals Without religion and the institutions 
of religion the world could not have reached its pres- 
ent heights; without them the heights beyond are un- 
attainable. Amid the struggles and achievements of 
mankind religion has constantly evolved new 
motives and goals. Being of the very texture of 
spiritual urge, religion requires growth in its con- 
tent and change in its expression. Happily, religion 
possesses the ability to inspire its own readjustment. 
Now, once again, religion is undergoing basic and 
significant reformation. We are now witnessing 
and participating in a humanistic awakening more 
thoroughgoing than the Christian reformation of 
two thousand years ago, more self-consistent than 
the Protestant reformation of four hundred years 
ago, and more intellectually daring than the liberal 
reformation of one hundred years ago. True and 
wise friends of religion will rejoice over newer and 
better motives and ideals. 


14 HUMANISM 


First, let us consider some of the old conceptions 
that have been carried over from by-gone ages and 
that must be laid aside before there can be a thor- | 
oughgoing humanistic reformation. 

The pre-scientific view of the world must be laid 
aside. As John Dewey has pointed out, primitive 
notions of the world were based on emotional and 
dramatic interpretations of experience. The motive 
of interpretation was not primarily the desire to be 
better equipped to live tomorrow, but the desire to 
escape the tedium of today and the thought of re- 
sponsibility tomorrow. Many of the facts of yes- 
terday’s experience were distorted in the interest of 
emotional and dramatic effect. The world was peo- 
pled with “spirits’—both good and bad—which op- 
erated in the world’s affairs. Men became subjects 
of this super-order of their own creation. Notwith- 
standing the untrustworthy character of the early 
interpretation of the world, views growing out of 
it were generalized and enforced, and so became 
fixed. This old world view has been carried over 
into and made a part of the world view of later ages. 
Even now both science and philosophy are strug- 
eling to free thinking from the presuppositions of 
this ancient world view. Religion still labors under 
the handicap of notions belonging to the childhood 
Giithey races 

The habit of metaphysically harmonizing contra- 
dictions between the old and the new must be laid 
aside. With the growth of knowledge it became 


HUMANIZING RELIGION 15 


evident that conflicts existed between matters of fact 
and matters of a traditional nature. Hence it be- 
came the function of the early philosophers and 
theologians to harmonize new facts with old beliefs, 
and to put the spirit, if not the form of the old 
beliefs, on a metaphysical instead of a traditional 
basis. In this way were born the old philosophical 
methods. Only recently has philosophy begun to 
conceive of its functions as otherwise. Religious 
thinking so far as it has reached the dignity of a 
philosophy, has had to do largely with the fixation 
of the old instead of the nurture of the new. All 
that is worthful in the old spiritual structure should 
be builded into the new, but the old habit of over- 
emphasis on the preservation of the “faith once for 
all delivered to the saints’”’ must be replaced with a 
new spiritual habit that seeks first to learn from new 
facts in order to produce better. experience. 

The attitude of trust must be superseded by cre- 
ative imagination. Throughout the history of relig- 
ion the religious attitude has been characterized by 
trust in the values and institutions of the fathers; 
it must come to be characterized by the imagination 
that builds the future. The old faith is directed 
toward truths already possessed: the new faith must 
be directed toward achievements yet to be wrought 
out of the materials of experience and thought. 

The animistic conceptions, the metaphysical ar- 
rangements, and the naive type of faith still pre- 
vailing in religion make a reformation imperative. 


16 HUMANISM 


Second, let us consider the forces that make a 
reformation in religion inevitable and imminent. 

Science, unchecked and triumphant in its march ~ 
through the centuries, has won significant victories. 
Vast stores of knowledge in many fields have been 
accumulated. Effective methods of nurturing and 
controlling life processes have been evolved. ‘The 
universe has taken on new meaning. In astronomy, 
physics, and biology the scientific method has been 
applied with happy results. No longer do we believe 
in a completed and fixed world. Man has been 
freed. He has become a co-worker with life. Greater 
changes have taken place in man’s thought of the 
nature of the world than can be easily appreciated. 
Biblical criticism has destroyed many of the dogmas 
of orthodoxy and remade much of the Bible. There 
are new interpretations of the mind of Jesus. With 
many serious thinkers the thought of God is under- 
going far-reaching changes. The unknown is con- 
stantly becoming the known. New light breaks over 
the world. 

In philosophy alleged perfect and absolute stand- 
ards are being investigated. The “ideas” of Plato 
and the “forms” of Aristotle, together with all pre- 
suppositions and so-called self-evident truths, are 
subject to careful analysis. Experimental experi- 
ence is the humanistic test of truth. The ideal grows 
out of real experience; it is consciously tested and 
remade in the light of new facts. With this comes 
an aggressive attitude towards life, replacing resig- 


HUMANIZING RELIGION | 17 


nation and submission. Religion must take into 
account this changed way of thinking. 

There are significant social changes in the direc- 
tion of a more thorough-going democracy. Castes 
and stratifications are doomed. The democracy of 
worths is making marked changes in the political, 
moral and industrial life of the world. Equality of 
opportunity is being glorified and made effective by 
mutual assistance. We are confidently expecting a 
world league of progress embracing all the nations 
of the earth. 

But the most important task at hand is to point 
out the lines along which humanistic religion is pro- 
ceeding. 

Already religion is remaking itself. It has begun 
the task of clarifying spiritual vision. It is now 
dealing with human conflicts and relations. Uncon- 
sciously religion is exchanging its colorless ultimates 
and its fixed goals for concrete worths and growing 
ideals. What religion is doing unconsciously it must 
henceforth do consciously. 

The object of humanistic religion is the enhance- 
ment of the human estate. The chief end of man 
is to build towering personality, and to direct it into 
ways of complete living. This requires not merely 
the recognition of wrong, but active endeavor to 
right the wrong and to build the right. | 

It is becoming customary for ministers and 
churches to take an interest in the affairs of the 
world. This is one of the most promising things in 


18 HUMANISM 


present-day religion. But this interest and activity 
is largely on the presupposition that righteousness 
is distinct from but inevitably follows the psychical | 
experience of at-one-ment between man and God. 
Henceforth spiritual adjustment is to be found in 
the very attitude, activity, and results of righteous- 
ness. In other words, henceforth at-one-ment, in 
creative endeavor, of man with man, of man with 
his environment, of man with the orderly processes 
of the universe is to be found at the center of relig- 
ious consciousness. And this we shall find to be the 
central reality in the at-one-ment desired and hoped 
for by all the religions of the world. 

The enhancement of the human estate, 1. e., the 
building of human personality, the righting of 
wrongs, and the creation of right relationships, is a 
moral program with the most far-reaching spiritual 
implications that religion has ever known. If this 
program be followed, religion shall be brought down 
to earth and the earth lifted into heaven. Every- 
body knows that religion needs regeneration. This 
it may find in a great committal to the greatest of 
all goals—the building of human souls for worthy 
habitation in a world of hard facts, and the constant 
remaking of the actual world about us and the ideal 
world beyond us. 

The method of attaining the humanistic religious 
life is the conscious observation of experience and 
regulated experimental living. Ancient experience 
at best is of secondary importance; personal and 


HUMANIZING RELIGION | 19 


modern experience is of primary importance. Things 
heretofore central in religion must be shifted to the 
outer edge of the margin of the religious conscious- 
ness. Forms and ceremonies, creeds and attitudes 
of mind that are now thought of as central must 
make way for purposeful service, free fellowship, 
and brave living. In this way the good may be 
saved from rigidity, remain plastic, and so be built 
into the new structures. 


To be genuinely experimental, life must be collab- 
orative and mutually helpful. The keenest com- 
petition henceforth must be found in the greatest 
service—a genuinely co-operative competition. 


The primary emphasis in humanistic religion is 
on exploration, discovery, and construction; not on 
acceptance, demonstration, and agreement. Life at 
its best is a series of discoveries and creations. The 
exchange of the attitude of resignation, acceptance, 
and possession for a more positive, aggressive, and 
constructive attitude is an immensely important ad- 
dition to the vitality of religion. 


Even now the venturesome and creative attitude 
is tolerated in religion as elsewhere. But it must 
come to be not merely tolerated but dominant. Ex- 
ploration, discovery, construction must come to be 
the expected and the regular. The attitude of ac- 
ceptance, demonstration, and agreement, of trust 
and obedience, whatever worth it may contain, must 
be secondary, derivative, and instrumental. 


20 HUMANISM 


Human beings and life processes have in them 
spiritual values and worths little dreamed of at pres-_ 
ent. We have hardly crossed the threshold of the 
storehouse of spiritual things. We are now only 
beginning to catch glimpses of what may yet be 
achieved. A few scientists and artists have helped 
us to see new possibilities in conquest and conse- 
quent exaltation. If we bravely face the future, 
looking backward only in order to profit by the mis- 
takes and the achievements of the past, we may yet 
know what it means to live truly, justly, and nobly. 

If the old shibboleths of religion pass away (and 
pass they must) the essence of religion shall be re- 
covered and enriched and ennobled. Worthy living, 
unconquerable loyalty to noble purposes, sympathy 
unrimmed by class or creed or race—these are the 
pillars and the pinnacle of religion. 

Out of deep experience and with creative imagi- 
nation religion must rebuild its content and remold 
its forms of expression. 


PART IT 


HUMANIZING RELIGION (continued) 


WORD is a symbol of reality. This is true 

whether the reality be a perceptual fact or con- 
ceptual theory. When reality changes, clear thinking 
requires that the old symbol be exchanged for an- 
other or that the change in content be clearly re- 
corded. When a word symbolizes a movement with 
continuity of problem and of attempt at solution, 
the familiar symbol should be kept and its changed 
meaning recorded. Psychology is a case in point. 
Once psychology was the name of the science that 
dealt with the soul; later of the science that dealt 
with mental faculties; then of the science that dealt 
with states of consciousness; and now psychology is 
the name of the science that deals with behavior. 
The old symbol still holds. Much more should this 
be true when the symbol is weighted with sacred 
associations and memories. Religion is a symbol 
which not only has continuity of problem and of 
attempt at solution but which is also surrounded 
with the most hallowed associations and memories. 
Religion symbolizes the human quest to discover in 
the nature of man and the universe the kind of life 
that is inherently desirable, and to enlist in its behalf 
all instrumentalities, both human and cosmic, that 


22 HUMANISM 


are capable of assisting in its realization. This 
quest is man’s religion. In early religions the quest 
took the form of attempts on the part of man to 
relate himself to those instrumentalities and values 
that seemed to have significance for the welfare of 
the group; and later it took the form of attempts to 
placate the personal gods in order to gain personal 
peace. While the forms of religion have under- 
gone revolution, we shall retain the term “religion.” 
My chief purpose, however, is not to justify the 
word but to record certain changes in its content and 
form. | 

The common denominator of the old-religions is 
found in man’s response to super-human sources of 
fortune. This belief in and relation to super-human 
sources of fortune is characteristic of the old relig- 
ions. Without this psychological situation the old 
faiths cannot admit the religious validity of any © 
human behavior. Hence the old religions have re- 
sulted in a servile psychological attitude. 

This pathetic and tragic outcome of the old relig- 
ions is now somewhat relieved by humanistic ten- 
dencies which are gradually growing everywhere. 
Modern thinkers are finding the content of religion 
in human worths and its cosmic significance in man’s 
co-operation with and control of the processes of 
life to the end that human possibilities shall be com- 
pletely and harmoniously realized. Humanism aims 
at the conscious experience of the fullness of life. 
It regards this as the aim and end of religion and 


HUMANIZING RELIGION 23 


of all social instrumentalities. In other words, 
humanism stands for the complete and permanent 
satisfactions of human life. 

The object of the old religion is the superhuman 
unknown and the chief content of the old religion 
is the sentiment entertained toward the superhuman 
unknown. The object of humanism is life, and its 
chief content is loyalty to life. In the old religion 
right and wrong are defined in terms of conformity 
to standards extrinsic to human life; in humanism 
right and wrong are defined in terms of consequence 
to human life. The old religion is characterized 
by trust and receptivity; humanism, by aspiration 
and creativity. 

Whatever theological significance is inferred 
from or attached to humanism, it is functional, ten- 
tative, secondary. The old religion judges man by 
his contribution to the gods; humanism judges the 
gods by their contribution to man. In the old re- 
ligion theological beliefs are central and imperative; 
in humanism theological theories are types of “spir- 
itual short hand.” In the old religion a theologi- 
cal revolution is spiritual treason; in humanism a 
theological revolution is a change of mental atti- 
tude, a shifting of postulates, a minor part of the 
day’s work. 

According to the old view, religion without super- 
human objects of faith is impossible. But if religion 
is the quest of man to discover and live the inher- 
ently desirable life, manifestly theological convic- 


24 HUMANISM 


tions and philosophies of the ultimate nature of the 
universe are not prerequisite to the religious life. 
Religion is not constituted of theology or philoso- 
phy or metaphysics—but it may use them as instru- 
ments in the enhancement of human life. Man may 
be utterly void of theology and yet be deeply relig- 
ious. Religion is enhanced by various intellectual 
and aesthetic devices, such as philosophical theories 
and liturgical forms, but none of them is exclusively 
essential. 

In the theocentric world of the pre-scientific days 
man wanted super powers or beings whom he could 
placate and so secure special agency. But science 
has discredited special agency. It has found the 
universe to be a self-operating system. It finds 
ordinary cosmic events and processes routine and 
impersonal, and other things cared for by highly 
specialized parts of nature such as man. It regards © 
order and purpose as self existent. Reality is found, 
but its ultimate nature is not yet determined. Man’s 
whole world outlook is vastly different from what 
it once was and it is still subject to change. Hence 
humanistic religion does not regard the acceptance 
of any philosophical or theological hypothesis as 
religiously necessary. 

Yet, in order to make its committals effective in 
the realization of its goals, humanism needs a sci- 
ence of values. Such a science must be evolved 
_ through long experimentation. It must be founded 
on enlightened experience, true to basic desires, and 


HUMANIZING RELIGION 25 


attested by its fruitage in the complete and har- 
monious realization of human life. 

Humanism regards all the normal human im- 
pulses as valid and worthful and it seeks the com- 
plete and harmonious realization of them all. There 
is no question of higher and lower impulses. None 
is mean or unclean. All are good and sacred. 
Humanism proclaims the democracy of the human 
impulses. Conflicts in the impulsive life are abnor- 
malities due to the misunderstanding and misuse 
of the impulses. The well-balanced, fully-developed, 
and intelligently controlled impulsive life is the full 
life. Of all the needs of the race, the greatest are 
for freedom from repression and oppression, and 
for committal to the fullest possible realization of 
life on the highest possible human plane. 

Humanism is bound up with the full life. It is 
intimately concerned with all social instrumentali- 
ties; with education and politics, with science and 
art, with industries and homes. It seeks not only 
to interpret these but to guide them. It aims to 
direct all social instruments and powers to the ends 
of human life, and to create new instruments and 
powers of life. It regards the whole sweep of life— 
the sex life, the political life, the economic life— 
as within its province. It regards the proper world 
order as a religious order. The whole of life goes 
up or down together and none of it is foreign to 
the interest of religion. When the purpose of 
thought and conduct is human well-being, such 


26 HUMANISM 


thought and conduct is religious in character. When 
thus motivated, consecration to science ts religious 
consecration, works of art are religious works, gov- 
ernmental achievements are religious achievements, 
social relationships are religious relationships, and 
moral victories are religious victories. 

In its wider significance, understood as loyalty 
to life and reinforced with modern imagery, religion 
shall become man’s supreme concern! 


PART IV 
HuMANIzING RELIGION (concluded) 


ELIGIOUS theory stands at the forks of the 

road; it must chose what its future course shall 

be. In the first place, religion must choose between 

anthropomorphic theology and scientific philosophy. 
Humanism favors the latter. 

For some time systematic thinking has been dis- 
counted. In some circles, thought of any kind is 
looked upon with askance. Many people are hunt- 
ing for “short cuts to knowledge, power, and hap- 
piness.” The contents of various psychological 
myths have been made the creeds of cults. Multi- 
tudes have tried the experiment of living without a 
reasonable philosophy of life. The experiment has 
failed, as it deserved to do. Modern man needs 
rational values. He must have science and philos- 
ophy to enrich his thought, to make it satisfying. 

The popular distrust of serious thinking is not 
due wholly to the depravity of the masses. Phil- 
osophers have allowed their devotion to minute and 
subtle technicalities to lead them far away from 
the life of the people. The further some thinkers 
explore reality the further they seem to go from 
the facts that determine the quality of life here and 


28 HUMANISM 


now. Little wonder that men and women of affairs 
neglect philosophy when it becomes too abtruse. 


But the common man who supposes that philos- 
ophy does not concern him and the philosopher 
who supposes that common things do not concern 
him are bordering on spiritual pauperism. Experi- 
ence, systematically thought through, results in 
ideals that are essential to any well-ordered life. 
Every person who intelligently attempts to find his 
place in the universe naturally evolves a philosophy. 


There is urgent need of serious thinking in pres- 
ent-day religion. Wild theories of the religious 
life are rampant. The old and more or less logical 
theologies have broken down; and hosts of their fol- 
lowers are grasping at every myth that offers help. 
Having departed from the old ways of thinking and 
having tried the unsatisfactory experiment of liv- 
ing without a philosophy, multitudes are reaching 
the reflective period. They have come to feel the 
need of an intelligent, well-rounded theory of life. 
A minister of wide experience said that he found 
that nine-tenths of his people were interested most 
in sermons that presented a philosophical back- 
ground for the individual’s faith. There can be no 
substitute for a clear, comprehensive, thoroughgo- 
ing theory of life. Just as social service, to be effec- 


tive, must be backed by a valid social philosophy, so 
must satisfying and ennobling religion be backed by 
a valid philosophy of life. 


HUMANIZING RELIGION 29 


We need clear, straight, factual thinking in order 
that there may be intelligent living. Dr. George R. 
Dodson reports a story told by Dean Fenn. “A 
little girl was playing about the room; and her 
father heard her say, ‘That square is blue.’ Dr. 
Johnson says, ‘If your child says he looked out of 
this window when he looked out of that, flog him.’ 
It did not seem to be a case requiring such harsh 
measures; and the father said, ‘No, that is red.’ The 
little child thought a moment, and said, ‘That red 
square is blue.’ Dr. Johnson’s dictum seemed to be 
coming dangerously near the application; and the 
father said sternly, ‘What do you mean by that? 
A thing cannot be both red and blue.’ The child 
pondered a moment, and then threw herself at her 
father and said, ‘O Father, how I love you.” In 
commenting on this story, Dr. Dodson says, ““This 
is a parable of a great deal of our religious think- 
ing. We say ‘that square is red,’ ‘No, somebody 
says, ‘that square is blue’; and then we rise to our 
larger unity, and our great high statements, and in- 
clude a self-contradiction, and then say, ‘Well, love 
is the greatest thing in the world’.”’ 

Without discounting the emotional elements that 
inhere in all religious experience, it is my opinion 
that religion can render its greatest service to the 
life of the world by adhering to methods of sane 
and clear factual thinking. Only in this way can 
religion build a philosophy able to withstand the 
onslaughts of ignorance and superstition, and to in- 


30 HUMANISM 


spire and lead the world to nobler heights. 

The ancient philosophy said man was worthful 
largely because he participated in or was possessed 
by or fused with an over-world, a supernatural will, 
or an over-soul. In virtue of this relation man re- 
ceived a supply of finished goods. 


But humanistic thought conceives of man and 
the world as worthful in and of themselves. Man 
is regarded as an autonomous, creative, responsible 
unit of the world life. Humanism regards the only 
social world worth living in as one made, controlled, 
and changed by man himself. That is to say, the 
old philosophy was monarchic; the modern 1s 
humanistic. 

Monarchy is an idea-system, the central thought 
of which is dependence of man on a superior order. 
In actual operation monarchy is merged with olig- 
archy, and men are dependent on Masters, Lords, 
Kings, Czars, Kaisers, and the like, all of whom 
are rapidly ceasing to function. According to mon- 
archic and oligarchic philosophy, men get their 
rights, powers, and goods by a servile tenure. 


On the other hand, humanism is an idea-system 
the central thought of which is the ability of col- 
lective man rationally and scientifically to control 
himself, his world, and the world of energy for the 
satisfaction of human desires. 


In monarchy the basic idea is acceptance by man 
of control and finished supply from above; in 


HUMANIZING RELIGION 31 


humanism the basic idea is control and creation by 
man from within. 

Humanism bids man make himself and his world 
what he will. It bids man continually reorganize 
his impulses, his philosophy, and his social institu- 
tions in the light of his ever-increasing achieve- 
ments. 

This type of thinking is beginning to prevail in 
many fields of thought. And our nomenclature is 
changing accordingly. In theology we say, “Free- 
will’ ; in science, ‘‘Self-variation” ; in politics, “Self- 
determination” ; and in economics we are learning to 
say ‘“Self-direction.” 

In the monarchic order all occurrences are the 
result of the will of the monarch or of the activities 
of his appointees. Man’s will and action amount to 
little or nothing. At best he can only hope and pray. 
If he wants more water, he must pray to the rain- 
spirit. If he wants freedom from disease, he must 
petition some god or goddess of pestilence. If he 
wants food, perhaps some raven will bring it. But 
the humanistic view of the world order holds that 
this is man’s world, that it depends largely on man 
what the world order shall be. This view holds 
that if man wants more water he must build reser- 
voirs and lay pipe lines. If he wants freedom from 
pestilence, he must foster medical science. If he 
wants food, he must till the soil. If he would elimi- 
nate his woes, he must do it himself. If he would 
mount the heights, he must generate the power. 


oF HUMANISM 


In the second place, religion must decide between 
the laissez faire theory and practice and that of the 
conscious direction of human progress. Humanism 
advocates the conscious direction of human progress. 

It is unnecessary to point out the bad effect of 
the age-long practice of laissez faire theories. The 
evil result is too obvious. Humanity has frequently 
drifted like a rudderless ship on an unknown sea. 
Too often religion has conceived of its function as 
that of providing solace for those who are distressed 
by life’s storms. It should create rudders and com- 
passes and charts and pilots. 

Modern democracy and science are based on, and 
contribute to the theory of the control and direction 
by man of himself, of his environment, and of his 
ideais. If religion is to be effective in the immediate 
future in the enhancement of the human estate it 
must cease its policy of trusting human affairs to the - 
chance operation of unknown agencies, and must 
ally itself with the newer and saner policies of 
democracy and science. 

The responsibility for a disordered world rests on 
man. Men are not mere things to be used by the 
fates. If the world is to be rightly ordered, if 
humanity is to make rational progress, man must 
assume the responsibility. In his control of nat- 
ural processes man is proving his skill and mastery. 
In his development of moral ideals, man is demon- 
strating his wisdom and foresight. In his discovery 
and creation of spiritual values man is expressing 


HUMANIZING RELIGION 33 


his undying hope and his prophetic insight. Already 
man is at work remaking both the world of things 
and the world of ideals. 

So great things are ahead of us. In the realm 
of psychology this is true. The world is coming to 
recognize the power of mind. Specialists are be- 
ginning to examine and classify mental phenomena. 
We shall soon know more of the psychological laws. 
In the realm of social arrangements great things are 
ahead of us. Large social combinations individually 
controlled are forecasts of great social combinations 
collectively controlled. Humanity is learning to pool 
its interests and so to remove the obstructions that 
block the upward way. We are approaching the 
day when a sane humanity shall create for itself 
an adequate body through which to express its soul. 

Man is capable of achieving things heretofore 
thought utterly impossible. He is capable of so 
ordering human relations that life shall be pre- 
served, not destroyed; that justice shall be estab- 
lished, not denied; that love shall be the rule, not 
the exception. It but remains for religion to place 
human responsibility at the heart of its gospel. 
When this is done, science and democracy and re- 
ligion will have formed an alliance of wisdom, vis- 
ion, and power. In this high concert of values, re- 
ligion must be the servant and through service the 
master of all! 


PART V 
HUMANIZING ETHICS 


HE ethical implications of humanism are in 

sharp contrast with the old idea of ethics. 
Autocratic ethics is founded on an arbitrary will 
superior to the world order; it severs action from 
natural inclination and gives it an unnatural char- 
acter. Autocratic ethics links a man’s destiny with 
his relation to “the Good,” abstractly considered, his 
relation to “goods” actually experienced being a sec- 
ondary matter. 

With the humanistic tendency in thought came the 
conception of morality as proceeding from man’s 
own reasonable nature. Duty and Conscience came 
into prominence. As the humanistic movement 
gained headway, it declared that morality enjoys 
valuable motives derived from the world of hard 
facts, from work, from society, and from the imme- 
diate relations of man to man. This gives to ethics 
a warmth and a life that the old view does not pos- 
sess. A philosopher cannot come in contact with 
the humanistic movement and remain cold and for- 
mal and abstract in his thinking. Ethics has shifted 
from the absolute and abstract to the finite and 
concrete. 


HUMANIZING ETHICS 35 


I 


Humanistic ethics is not an isolated science 
searching for an absolute standard of right and 
wrong, but an intelligent mobilization by human be- 
ings of law, medicine, education, economics, all the 
political and social sciences, and all values and in- 
strumentalities known to man, for the promotion of 
the common welfare. 

Humanism has no set of abstractions outside of 
and foreign to the life process serving as standards 
and criterions of moral values. The enhancement 
of life is humanism’s ethical criterion. 

We are to be loyal to our ideas of right and 
wrong, to our ideas of value, not in order to meas- 
ure up to an ultimate standard, but in order to pro- 
mote human welfare, 1. e., in order to make boys 
and girls and men and women happier and more 
able to contribute to the harmonious ordering and 
happy living of the world. 

In the old view of life, religion was Godward 
action and ethics was manward action. But now 
Godward action is found.in manward action. “He 
that loveth not his brotheé® ‘whom he hath seen, 
how can he love God whom he hath not seen ?”’ 

Viewed in this way, ethics stirs its dry bones, 
takes on flesh, blood courses through its veins; it 
becomes a thing of vital human concern. 


36 HUMANISM 


In humanism, law is no longer mouldy statutes, 
precedents regularly followed, mistakes sanctioned 
by usage, but a growing moral force related to the 
common welfare. Medicine, education and econom- 
ics are mobilized. All the sciences fall in line; so 
with all the values and instrumentalities known to 
man. This “army with banners” is the humanist’s 
conception of ethical values. | 

Humanistic ethics is in the realm of things experi- 
mental. At no stage of development does human- 
ism lay claim to finality. Statements of faith are 
tentative. Programs are subject to change. “Exper- 
iment” is the watch word. New days bring new 
light. 

“New occasions teach new duties 
Times makes ancient good uncouth; 
They must upward still, and onward, 
Who would keep abreast of truth.” 


We pass laws, and try them in operation; and 
sometimes we repeal them. We go from one school 
of thought to another. We test one economic scheme 
after another. And all the while we are trying to 
promote the welfare of man. We are not hunting 
for a complete and ultimate code of moral prin- 
ciples. We are not expecting to find such a code. 
Hammurabi’s code had its day and passed. So did 
the law of Moses. 

So with many similar experiments. No doubt, 
each was valuable in its day. Each contributed to 


HUMANIZING ETHICS a 


the world something of more or less lasting value. 
Morality, like the world, has had a history. In the 
light of the best we know we have gathered mate- 
rials from the whole of history and have builded 
our moral structures. 


Lid 


In the humanistic view of ethics, authority aims 
to make itself unnecessary. Authority in itself has 
no moral significance. Unless authority produces 
individual freedom it is valueless, except as a police 
measure. 

I am not speaking against authority as a police 
measure; such authority I regard as still necessary 
and socially valuable. But if authority does not 
tend, by producing free individuals, towards its own 
elimination, it has no more moral significance than 
a fence around a zoo. 

In humanism the whole aim of authority, other 
than its police features—in the home, in dealing 
with the child, in the school in dealing with the 
pupils, in the state in dealing with the citizens— 
should be to make itself unnecessary. 

Humanism regards authority as a good only if 
it be a means to self-direction. 





38 HUMANISM 


IV 


In humanistic ethics, responsibility rests with 
man. Humanism places the initiative center in man. 
Experiment in ethics, as elsewhere, is initiated by 
man. 

Hence, humanistic ethics seeks to develop free- 
dom in individual man. Only in a free man, cap- 
able of initiative, and operating in a universe where 
nothing is ultimate and fixed, am I able to find the 
basis of moral living. Not until an individual’s 
will is autonomous does he have in him the complete 
elements of a moral life. That “which is accom- 
plished by chance, unconsciously, without desiring 
it, under constraint, contrary to our intentions,” can 
not possibly belong to us morally. That which we 
do with intention, with free will, belongs to us mor- 
ally, and only that. Whatever restraint or con- 
straint inheritance and environment may throw 
about our actions, conduct resulting therefrom does 
not belong to us morally. Action under such con- 
ditions, the results of which are bad, puts in an 
unhappy condition but not in a condition of moral 
delinquency. If the monarchic and autocratic view 
of the universe is correct, moral culpability rests 
with the “Supreme Autocrat.” 

The moral life begins with freedom to choose or — 
not to choose a line of action; and no moral signifi- 


HUMANIZING ETHICS 39 


cance can be attached to any action in the absence 
of this freedom. 

The mere desire to follow a certain line of action 
does not involve moral culpability. Presupposing 
freedom, then moral culpability inheres in an action 
only in virtue of the intention with which we actu- 
ally do it, 1. e., with knowledge of its significance, 
not in virtue of the desire to do it. Otherwise we 
may always say as Jesus did of his executioners, 
“They know not what they do.” To know what 
ones does, to be morally responsible, it is necessary 
not only to choose a certain line of action, but to 
do so with knowledge that it is good or bad, and 
to follow it so far as one knows it to be good, 
or in spite of the fact that one knows it to be bad. 
While the basis of moral life is freedom, its cor- 
nerstone is knowledge. 

But in the humanistic view of life, knowledge 
at best is only approximate and tentative. Let us 
face facts. We cannot always know exactly what is 
right and wrong. So called “principles” change with 
changing time—to say nothing of policies. Ethics, 
like life, is in a state of flux. 

In moral conduct we strike rock bottom only when 
a free man intentionally acts in harmony with his 
own intelligent conviction. 

In the humanistic view of morality, responsibil- 
ity rests heavily upon the individual. Every man 
should aim to educate himself to the point of free- 
dom, 1. e., to the point where his will may freely 


40 HUMANISM 


direct his action toward ends designated by the un- 
biased judgments of a free mind and the unselfish 
aims of a noble soul. This responsibility is a most 
important matter. As long as action is dictated by 
impulse, or passion, or prejudice, the world will suf- 
fer recurring catastrophes. I wish I could burn 
this idea into the soul of everyone. Oh, the misery 
the world has suffered from brainless action! How 
long shall we trust to impulse and chance and refuse 
the dominion of brain and soul! 


PART VI 
HUMANIZING MYSTICISM 


‘T’ HERE is a spiritual flame in humanism which, 

while differing radically from the old mysticism, 
may rightly be called highly mystical. In content 
this new mysticism is natural, in motive human, in 
goal worldly. It finds fuel in all human instincts, 
impulses, and emotions; in all worthy motives, 
causes, and goals; in all noble thinking, social living, 
and high aspirations. It sanctifies the senses, glori- 
fles natural faculties, and identifies man with deific 
creative processes. It may be fanned into a bril- 
liancy that will light and warm the world with a 
glow greater than any yet known. 

Intensity and depth of feeling in regard to what 
is believed about the universe is the essence and the 
heart of the old mysticism. But depth and intensity 
of feeling in regard to what is believed are made 
deeper and more intense by applying and testing the 
belief in actual conduct. The exultant thrill of en- 
listment and service in the nurture of abiding de- 
sires, in the struggle for the common good, in the 
constant renewal of ideal motives and goals is the 
essence and the heart of humanistic mysticism. 

From this viewpoint valid mystical experiences 


42 HUMANISM 


inhere in free, experimental, purposeful living. It 
is only in such living that the greatest interest can 
be taken. It is only such living that produces the 
fine emotional thrill that satisfies and ennobles. If 
life is dull it is because it is only imitative of what 
has been done, or of what others are doing. When 
life is intelligently original, venturesome, and cre- 
ative, it is full of satisfaction and exultant aspira- 
tion. 


I 


Freedom is prerequisite to humanistic mysticism. 
In all mystical writings is stressed the thought of 
freedom from everything except the super-spiritual 
order in which the individual seeks submergence. 
Humanistic mysticism proclaims freedom of man- 
kind from super-orders as well, and declares that 
the consciousness of such freedom is prerequisite 
to mystical experience of the finer sort. The con-~ 
sciousness of intrinsic worth and of freedom in its 
nurture is conducive to soul serenity and spiritual 
poise. There is no true and abiding satisfaction 
apart from free experience. Coercion whether by 
associates, governments, or gods is depressing and 
devitalizing. Coercive measures in connection with 
sub-normals and ab-normals have a protective func- 
tion, but with normal persons coercion has no spir- 
itual value. Whether coercion be of a legal or a 
creedal nature, physical or psychological, it is to be 
regarded as only an emergency measure. 


HUMANIZING MYSTICISM 43 


Only between persons who are equally free can 
true reverence exist. Where subservience and fear 
are there is no true reverence. But the sense of rev- 
erence is of the essence of mysticism. Reverential 
mystical experience is to be found in the democ- 
racy of those who are equally free. I may fear a 
monarch, but I revere and love a brother. I may 
stand in awe before the unknown, but I revere and 
love the known. I may tremble before the thought 
of universal forces swinging and crashing through 
time, but I find rest and peace in the approval of 
the brethren and in the consciousness of work well 
done. 

Two ministers spoke on kindred subjects on the 
same evening from the same platform. In their 
ecclesiastical associations one of them dwelt in a 
conservative, orthodox atmosphere, the other in 
a free and vital atmosphere. The one found it neces- 
sary constantly to modify and moderate his thought 
and his statements in order to meet beforehand the 
charge of liberality. The other was under no such 
compulsion. After due allowance was made for 
natural differences in temperament, it was perfectly 
evident that the subserviency of the one had left its 
mark on both body and soul. The other gentleman, 
who had extraordinary physical difficulties which 
might well have led to depression, was the very in- 
carnation of the spirit of freedom. The exultation 
and confidence of an unfettered experience was evi- 
dent in every feature of his being. With masterly 


44 HUMANISM 


bearing he stepped out before the audience; and into 
my mind came the picture of a lion emerging from 
his native forest, head erect, sweeping his eye over 
the surrounding landscape. 


II 


Purpose is the dynamic of humanistic mysticism. 
Concentration and directness of purpose are con- 
ducive to spiritual serenity and power. A brilliant 
but unpopularized person is one of the most ineffec- 
tive and pitiful of creatures. Many of the mystics 
of the old order seem to me to be without genuine 
purpose, unless the somewhat hazy desire to be ab- 
sorbed in undifferentiated ultimate reality can be 
called purpose. I do not see a sufficient amount of 
well-directed worldly, practical, democratic pur- 
pose in the old mysticism to justify its existence. 
But wherever a person intelligently conceives and 
deliberately plans a long-run program in the direc- 
tion of a goal regarded as attainable in him is found 
ease and comfort and power. It is not distance from 
a goal but lack of a goal that utterly distracts a per- 
son. There is no doubt of Abraham Lincoln’s de- 
sire to free the negro, but his definite purpose of 
preserving the union was a clearcut goal that 
strengthened him through the awful days of the 
civil war. Purpose is the dynamic of personality. 


HUMANIZING MYSTICISM 45 


Hid 


Creative action is the method of humanistic mys- 
ticism. The consciousness of god-hood inheres in 
creative action. Actually to bring into being a new 
thing or a new idea or a new emotion is to demon- 
strate one’s divinity. Unmeasured happiness sur- 
rounds new things. Witness the enthusiasm of a 
child over any one of its simple creations. Imitative 
religion is positively deadening to all spiritual fac- 
ulties. The devotees of ancient faiths who con- 
stantly repeat the sayings of the fathers and who 
go through mechanical religious exercises are admin- 
istering an anaesthetic to native spiritual potentiali- 
ties. Religious forms and ceremonies should be 
constructed with the avowed purpose of providing 
facilities and tools of creative experience. This 
applies with special force to schools of religious edu- 
cation. If youth be unhindered by the withered 
hand of the past it naturally tends to join forces 
with all positive processes in the attempt to create 
a new heaven and a new earth. As old things pass 
away, as all things become new, he who is con- 
scious of having a part in bringing about this change 
shares in the universal elation. 


Humanistic mysticism is at its best in conscious 
committal and loyalty to worthful causes and goals. 
How the mind and heart and soul respond to com- 
mittal and loyalty! Nothing is more regenerating 


46 HUMANISM 


and rejuvenating! A genuine committal loyally fol- 
lowed in actual experience thrills every fiber of one’s 
being. It lifts one out of narrowness and selfish- 
ness. We hardly know our friends after their com- 
mittal to a great cause. No longer weak, they are 
flaming evangels. 

It is not my purpose to designate specific causes 
and goals which have magic power. Such goals are 
numerous and are capable of multiplying infinitely. 
One’s cause may be temperamentally or rationally 
chosen. It may be the quest of God or of God’s 
will. It may be the search for ultimate truth or 
empirical values. It may be the quest of life’s laws 
and methods, or of freedom and fraternity. It may 
be the building of the best little home that the world 
ever knew. But whatever it is the most valid of all 
mystical experience is committal and loyalty to it. 


In a hospital in France a soldier boy beckoned 
for a physician. As the physician approached the 
boy said, “Doctor, did I make good for democracy ?” 
“Yes,” said the Doctor, “you made good.” “But, 
Doctor, did I do my dead level best?” “Yes, you 
did your dead level best.’’ And in the conscious- 
ness of having made good in his great committal, 
of having done his very best, the soldier smiled 
serenely as he passed away. In noble living is a 
flame which not only lights the way of life but which 
also throws a radiance over the gate of death. 


PART VII 


HUMANIZING HUMAN NATURE 


HE age-old faith that human nature can and 
should be changed is being justified by scientific 
fact. The expectation of the religions of the world 
is being fulfilled. While the great religions of the 
world have spoken ill of original human nature, 
they have never doubted its possibilities. With the 
exception of Brahmanism, no great religion has ex- 
cluded any one from the highest religious attain- 
ment. Religion has not been wholly successful in 
remaking human nature, but its achievements have 
been such that no doubts have been able success- 
fully to assail its faith. Recent positive achieve- 
ments have verified the age-long faith in the possi- 
bilities of human nature; and one positive achieve- 
ment overthrows all negative experience. It is now 
evident that human nature not only can be changed 
but is being changed constantly. The process of 
organizing and correlating impulses, of changing 
human nature, is going on with startling rapidity. 
While most living things constantly fit their en- 
vironment to themselves, man can reshape himself 
also—and is now reshaping himself on a gigantic 
scale. Lower forms of life see only the need for 
change in their outside facts; man sees the need 


48 HUMANISM 


for change in himself also. Other forms of life 
have some part in their growth and development; 
but man seems to be the only living thing that con- 
sciously examines himself with serious intent to 
change his nature in accord with an end in view. 


I 


Original human nature is a bundle of unorgan- 
ized impulses. We know no man in the unaffected 
natural state. There are no solitary human infants. 
With the first social exchange the original self is 
overlaid; and this early experience becomes the 
basis of perfectly normal dispositions later. Hence 
our idea of original human nature must be the re- 
sult of abstraction. We have to postulate units. 
And “and instinct is such an hypothetical unit.” 
Instincts may be thought of as the channels down 
which the current of life runs, but the channels are 
not fixed and permanent but are being changed con- 
stantly. 

The higher range of instincts tends toward the 
intellectual mastery of problems; but this is a rather 
late development. Human nature has become what 
it is by a gradual process of organization around 
the will to responsible living. 


HUMANIZING HUMAN NATURE 49 


II 


The humanizing of human nature consists in the 
gradual organization of instincts or impulses or 
original tendencies in harmony with the growing 
conception of individual and social worth, 1. e., in 
harmony with community of interests. 

As the human race progresses its conception of 
individual worth grows apace. The sacredness of 
the individual becomes an established premise. The 
violation of personality becomes the gravest crime. 
No man may be sacrificed on the altar of another’s 
ambition. The individual in and of himself is sacred 
and his personality must be regarded as inviolable. 

Society, too, becomes a sacred thing. That inde- 
finable something that we call society—that system 
of psychical relations, that network of interdepend- 
ence, that human brotherhood—has come to be re- 
garded with reverence and devotion. The rights of 
the whole have come to be regarded as inviolable 
as the rights of the individual. 

So we must organize our fear, our hunger, our 
pugnacity, and our love around the will to respons- 
ible living, 1. e., the will to selfhood in harmony with 
the selfhood of our fellowmen and the interdepend- 
ence of all. This is not reversal but development 
of primitive tendencies or impulses. Such is the 
process of civilization. The instincts as well as the 
individuals and species worthy of survival are the 
federalists and not the anarchists. 


50 HUMANISM 


Til 


The principal agent in the remaking of a human 
being is his own will. By coercion a man may be 
made to do this or that but such is not to change 
his wants, and unless his wants are changed, his in- 
stincts reached, he is not a remade man. And in 
final analysis a man’s own will must determine what 
he wants to be or do. 

Coercion long continued may change human nat- 
ure, but if so it 1s because a degree of consent has 
been developed. Unless coercion, even with a child, 
is So managed as to develop the consent and approval 
of the will, it is ethically worthless. 

While there is continuous interplay between a 
man’s will and the reaction of society, and while 
every man is what he is in part because of what 
somebody else is, or has been; yet within very wide 
margins a man may become largely what he wills 
to be. That is to say, a man may consciously remake 
himself and society may deliberately assist in the 
remaking. In this lies the hope of democracy. 

Human nature is the most plastic part of the liy- 
ing world. Within very large margins human be- 
ings may not only do what they will but also become 
what they will. 

In man, of all animals, heredity counts for least 
and conscious building for most. Man’s infancy is 
longest, “his instincts least fixed, his brain most un- 
finished at birth, his powers of habit-making and 


HUMANIZING HUMAN NATURE 51 


habit-changing most marked, his susceptibility to 
social impressions keenest.” * That is to say, man 
of all animals is the most unfinished at birth. 

There are few national or racial or Utopian de- 
mands so contrary to nature that they could not be 
put into operation. The question, then, becomes not 
what is possible but what 1s desirable. Once we 
know what we want to make of human nature, that 
we can make it. 


IV 


The original unorganized impulses or tendencies 
are very general in their nature. For instance, the 
impulse to flee from danger: Some years ago a cry 
that sounded like “fire’’ was heard from the balcony 
of a theater in the south. The impulse to flee was 
immediately operative, and many people leaped from 
the building and landed on the pavement below or 
piled on top of each other and became heaps of 
dead. The impulse to flee from danger was not 
correlated with the higher impulse to think of an 
end and how to reach it. That is, the general im- 
pulse to flee from danger should be particularized 
and correlated and so become the specific impulse to 
reach the means of escape. The intellect, that is the 
idea of an end—in this case safely to reach the 
ground by means of the fire escape—must particu- 
larize the general impulse to flee. 

1 Hocking. 


52 HUMANISM 


Consider the food-getting impulse. The impulse 


to eat may lead to sudden death from the eating of 
poisonous matter, or which is more usual, to indi- 
gestion from eating too much. The impulse to eat 
must be organized in line with the responsible policy 
of eating wholesome food and not too much of that, 
in order to an end, viz., health and long life. 

The impulse to sociability, the gregarious instinct, 
must be particularized to the point of desiring to 
be with people of worth and to make people worthy 
of association. The general impulse to be with a 
crowd must be particularized to the point of desir- 
ing to be with a worthy crowd. And so on through 
the range of impulses. 

Original human nature is neither depraved nor 
divine: it is simply unorganized and undirected. Its 
remaking, its regeneration if you prefer, consists in 
organization and direction toward worthy ends. 
And this is the work of intelligence and will. 


V 


To this task of humanizing human nature the 
church must set itself with apostolic fervor. Now 
that we know how to change human nature, what 
the change means, and why human nature should 
be changed, we should increase our efforts and so 
multiply results. 

The achievements of religion in the remaking of 
human nature have not been what they should. And 


——  —— 


HUMANIZING HUMAN NATURE 53 


the reason for this is two-fold: Neglect of basic 
inside facts, and misapprehension of the relation be- 
tween inside and outside facts. 


The function of the will in the remaking process 
has not been sufficiently recognized, nor has the will 
been developed adequately. Religion has called on 
men unconditionally to surrender the will to outside 
and supernatural forces. “Breaking the stubborn 
will” is evangelical language. Worldly powers have 
coerced the will of subjects, and parents have broken 
the will of children. The will is the central agent 
in remaking and should be neither broken nor sur- 
rendered to God or man. Let the will be developed, 
let it be directed into safe channels, but never broken 
or surrendered. If the church would once turn its 
attention toward developing the will and directing 
it into safe channels, it could render a most useful 
service to humanity. The church must be the cham- 
pion of the inviolable rights of the human will. 


The importance of outside facts in the develop- 
ment of the will and in the remaking of human nat- 
ure has not been understood by the church. Arctic 
zones and torrid regions tend to stultify human nat- 
ure. But worse is the stultifying effect of an evil 
social environment. The temperate zones tend to 
development. Likewise the zones of temperate liv- 
ing—of neither too much nor too little—are socially 
healthful. A democratic environment and a demo- 
cratic nature are interactive and mutually necessary. 


54 HUMANISM 


We may become what we will to be. The door 
to the future swings wide open. ‘The eternal urge 
moves within us. The laws of nature sustain us. 
Swords shall yet be beaten into ploughshares. Ours 
shall be the social order that follows tireless toil 
and noble purpose. But to attain this goal we must 
reaffirm our faith in the possibilities of human nat- 
ure, and dedicate ourselves to the task of organiz- 
ing human nature on the basis of world-wide com- 
munity of interest. 


PART VII 


HUMANIZING LIBERALISM 


ISTORICALLY the basic content of religious 
liberalism is spiritual freedom. Out of this basic 
content has come the conviction of the supremacy of 
reason, of the primary worth of character, and of the 
immediate access of man to spiritual sources. Always 
religious liberalism has tended to replace alleged 
divine revelations and commands with human opin- 
ions and judgments; to develop the individual atti- 
tude in religion; and to identify righteousness with 
life. The method of religious liberalism has always 
been that of reflection, not that of authority. Liber- 
alism has insisted on the essentially natural charac- 
ter of religion. 

Believing that religion is best promoted in the 
presence of live issues, and that every age must 
achieve its own faith, liberalism has been willing to 
hazard its affirmations in an open field where the 
contestants strive for only the greatest service pos- 
sible. And this experience has led liberalism not 
only to free religion from extraneous accretions, but 
also to think of religion primarily as conscious com- 
mittal and loyalty to human causes and goals. For- 
merly liberalism emphasized chiefly emancipation 


56 HUMANISM 


and freedom; now it emphasizes also committal and 
loyalty. 

Liberalism has had to face, even more than have 
other forms of religion, the age-old philosophical 
question “why?” That is, to what purpose—to what 
end—do we live? In answer to this question human- 
istic liberalism proclaims as the end and aim of relig- 
ion, and of life, free and positive personality, loy- 
ally and intelligently associated, and cosmically re- 
lated. 

If liberalism can be reduced to a single statement, 
I think this is it: Conscious committal and loyalty 
to worthful causes and goals in order that free and 
positive personality may be developed, intelligently 
associated, and cosmically related. 

Let us see where this leads. 


I 


The liberal is not satisfied with a religious experi- 
ence acquired chiefly through confession, repent- 
ance and divine communion, and terminating in a 
heaven of subject existence. He is not willing to 
accept the promise of a distant estate of doubtful 
character and location in lieu of concrete worths and 
measurable values here and now. He believes that 
whatever the future may hold for him it must be 
the outcome of his own spiritual achievements. 
Hence he demands that his personality be free and 
self-directive. 


HUMANIZING LIBERALISM ny, 


The liberal is not satisfied with purely material 
ends. In his swing away from mystic union with 
entities of doubtful existence he does not plunge 
into the abyss of gross material satisfactions. He 
may go from one of these extremes to the other, 
but if so, it is only for a while. In the long run he 
hangs tenaciously to the conviction that fundamen- 
tally his nature is spiritual—that a spiritual self ad- 
justs and guides and controls. 

The liberal is not satisfied with freedom alone. 
Emancipated from superstition and prejudice, he 
may lead a care-free and easy existence for a while, 
but soon the essentially positive nature of person- 
ality becomes assertive, and the liberal knows that 
positive committals and loyalty are essential to the 
full expression of himself. 

The center of spiritual gravity is shifted from 
objective and supernatural forms to individual man. 
This is not the denial of the existence of significant 
and objective worths, but only the removal of the 
seat of authority from an indefinite something some- 
where, to a definite self known to be native to human 
existence. This is not a hasty conclusion reached 
by the liberal. It is the plainly observable trend of 
history. The lesson of the long experience of the 
race is that of the primary importance of human 
initiative and self-direction. 

The outstanding characteristic of modern liberal- 
ism, and indeed of all modern thinking, is the evalu- 
ation of personality as the thing of supreme worth. 


58 HUMANISM 


Hence liberalism now affirms in terms unmistakable 
that institutions are only the tentative and tempo- 
rary expressions of personality, that they are fre- 
quently outgrown and must, like the hull of the 
chrysalis, be burst asunder and left only to mark an 
epoch past. Institutions—religious, capitalistic, 
socialistic, or what not—must now stand or fall as 
they are able or unable to serve effectively and effi-, 
ciently in the building of free and positive human 
souls. 


I] 


Present-day liberals see the essentially interde- 
pendent nature of human beings; that the fulfillment 
of the individual self requires orderly, purposeful 
association with other selves. This thought finds — 
expression in various terms: Brotherhood, solidar- 
ity, mutuality, reciprocity, fraternity, community. 
For a long time prophets, poets and statesmen have 
proclaimed the ambition of the race to be linked to- 
gether for mutual service; and now biology and 
social science agree that there is and can be no com- 
plete self-realization aside from co-operation with 
other selves. 

Ideally this is the heart of Christianity. The 
organic unity of the race is found in the teachings 
of Christianity. Jesus, at his best, thought and spoke 
in world-terms. Human solidarity is the heart of 
the labor movement. This finds expression in the 


HU MANIZING LIBERALISM 59 


motto: “An injury to one is an injury to all.”” The 
red flag is meant to be symbolic of the blood of the 
race. The latest and best type of statesmanship 
thinks in world terms. We are now becoming accus- 
tomed to world issues, programs and achievements. 

Humanistic liberalism constantly aims to promote 
the widest possible human comradeship and the clos- 
est possible human fellowship. And this aim is un- 
derwritten by the knowledge that co-operation and 
not competition is the dominant factor in the growth 
of the race. 

In the most intimate of human relationships, the 
home, we know no complete satisfaction apart from 
the good of those whom we love. Notions of the 
exact character of this relationship, laws defining its 
social responsibilities may and do and should change 
with changing time; but always the race finds deep 
and abiding satisfaction in the solidarity of what 
we call the home. We now know that the positive 
sentiments and other hard facts of the solidarity of 
the home belong essentially to other social relation- 
ships. In industry we are trying as never before, 
and with a measure of success, to reorganize on the 
basis of community of interests. So with other re- 
lationships. The old notion that the individual ex- 
periencing good can be an isolated individual has 
gone forever. 

The legacy from the best prophets of the past is 
a conception of a united world. The coming order 
is a world order. And any religion that hesitates to 


60 HUMANISM 


proclaim this gospel is neither an heir of the proph- 
ets of the past nor the parent of the achievement of 
the future. 

The cohesive principle in the achievement of this 
human world order is radical good-will. This leads 
to the new competition, competition in the rendering 
of the greatest service. The pride of the old pro- 
fessions—law, medicine, ministry—is in the render- 
ing of the greatest service. The spirit of the old 
professions must be fused into the social order from 
bottom to top, from the corner grocery to the 
League of Nations. 

Liberals think of Democracy not only as freedom 
and equality of opportunity but also as mutual as- 
sistance in the use of freedom and opportunity. To 
take one class off the shoulder of another class is 
not enough. All people must work shoulder to 
shoulder. 

Radical good-will alone does not satisfy human- 
istic liberalism. Now comes the demand on good- 
will to develop a technique for making itself effec- 
tive in the world of hard facts. Social science is 
still in its infancy. There is room for and need of 
creative statesmanship in the reorganization of 
human relationships. How to secure food, shelter, 
and clothes without losing one’s soul is a pressing 
problem. At last humanity has rebelled against a 
state of affairs that requires the forfeiture of the 
soul in order to acquire a rag, a shack, and a loaf 
of bread. In the solution of the problems involved 


HUMANIZING LIBERALISM 61 


in the rescue of the soul from the clutch of mammon 
are causes worthy of committal and loyalty. Lib- 
eralism declares that the church needs to understand 
the economic expression of brotherhood, and that 
everybody needs to understand the spiritual signifi- 
cance of economic co-operation. The next step in 
world progress is the proper co-ordination of eco- 
nomic forces with intellectual, moral, and spiritual 
forces. 


Ill 


In the past the basic content of most religions 
has been that of the submission of persons to super- 
natural agencies, and the consequent appropriation 
of worths. In these systems of religion man was 
worthful because he participated in or was possessed 
by supernatural agencies. In virtue of this relation 
man received a supply of finished goods. In these 
systems men got their rights, powers, and goods by 
servile tenure. There was submission from below 
and control from above. This monarchic view of 
religion rose to its noblest height in the expression, 
“Thy will be done.” 

The realm of the divine is now subject to investi- 
gation. Here, as elsewhere, the scientific method is 
being applied. Here regulated observation and ex- 
periment may result in new theological discoveries, 
and so liberalism must remain undogmatic in regard 
to God. The theology of Augustine and that of 


62 HUMANISM 


Channing, the theology of Billy Sunday and that of 
H. G. Wells, might all be found utterly inadequate 
without consequent injury to the religion of the lib- 
eral. Liberalism is building a religion that would 
not be shaken even if the thought of God were out- 
grown. 

Nevertheless, the liberal recognizes and zealously 
proclaims the fact that purposive and powerful cos- 
mic processes are operative, and that increasingly 
man is able to co-operate with them and in a meas- 
ure control them. What these processes be styled is 
of but little importance. Some call them cosmic 
processes, others call them God. In life there is wis- 
dom beyond our present comprehension. This is 
seen in the amoeba as it adjusts its structure for the 
attainment of the ends desired; in the living proto- | 
plasmic cells on the ends of the rootlets of bean and 
wheat, both apparently identical, the one refusing 
flint, the other receiving it; in the co-operative col- 
‘ony of the sponge and the daisy, the bee and the » 
wolf; and in the marvellous neural arrangement of 
man. | 

To the ancients the contemplation of cosmic 
events led to the theory of direct supernatural oper- 
ation or to that of the use of natural forces by 
supernatural agencies. But to an increasing num- 
ber of serious thinkers and to an innumerable host of 
liberals everywhere the contemplation of cosmic 
events has given way to regulated observation of 
and experiment with cosmic purposes; and this has 


HUMANIZING LIBERALISM 63 


led to conscious co-operation with and partial con- 
trol of cosmic processes. The ancients bowed before 
the unknown; the modern man attempts to under- 
stand the unknown. Supernatural agencies and laws 
are giving way to natural modes and processes. With 
this must go much of the nomenclature and many 
of the forms of worship of the religions of the 
world. 

Humanistic liberalism understands spirituality to 
be man at his best, sane in mind, healthy in body, 
dynamic in personality ; honestly facing the hardest 
facts, conquering and not fleeing from his gravest 
troubles; committed to the most worthful causes, 
loyal to the best ideals; ever hoping, striving, and 
achieving. To know one’s self as inherently worth- 
ful, actually to find fullest expression in the widest 
human service and consciously to become a co- 
worker with cosmic processes, is spiritual experi- 
ence deep and abiding. 


PART IX 
HUMANIZING THE CHURCH 


CCOMPANYING the new understanding of the 

nature of religion and of human responsibility 
will be a new concrete embodiment of religion in 
social organization; that is to say, a new church. 
There will be a humanistic church founded on social 
science and having as its supporting pillars all the 
attested facts of all the sciences. Woven into its 
structures will be all the values and all the beauties | 
known to the best minds of the ages. 

Humanism will develop a more vital pulpit. I 
am not forgetful of the glories of the old. I am not 
forgetful of the ancient oratory, Hebrew prophecy, 
and Christian gospel which resulted in the practice 
of preaching. In ancient classical oratory, in the 
fervid addresses of the Hebrew prophets, and in 
the gospel of the founders of Christianity we have 
the artistic and effective use of language as instru- 
ment in public service. But the old pulpit is totter- 
ing. Its once unrivaled glory is fading. Its days 
of prophecy are gone. Decay has set in. But already 
the materials of the new pulpit are being hewn out 


HUMANIZING THE CHURCH 65 


of the materials of the new day. The oracle of 
modernity shall be established where once stood the 
altars of the ancient. The new pulpit will be recog- 
nized as the seat of the public expression of the 
most high truths. This function of the pulpit is 
no small task. When I contemplate the responsibil- 
ity of the humanistic pulpit I feel like saying with 
an old Virginia divine, “I cannot preach, I never 
have preached, I have never heard anybody who 
could preach.”’ 


~The humanistic minister must be a man among 
men. His life must be lived not in seclusion but 
in the wide open. He must not be set apart from 
the world, but active in the midst of the world. 


As he moves among men his mark of distinction 
must be intelligence and sincerity of purpose. He 
must know no master other than the truth. He 
must let neither personal circumstances nor the in- 
fluence of persons alter the fundamental content and 
tone of his message. It is better to worship at the 
altar of the past than to be subsidized by the unholy 
forces of the present. He must consider no word 
of his own nor of any other person as final. He 
must never attempt to close the book of life. He 
must not be a preserver and guardian of dogmas but 
a friend of the truth. He must be free from all 
professionalism, and from all stereotyped methods. 
He must not be a fossil in the strata of yesterday 
but a living force in the movements of -today. 


66 HUMANISM 


The message of the humanistic pulpit must be 
inspirationally informative. It must synthesize and 
correct and enlarge academic instruction. It must 
shed new light on matters thought to be closed for- 
ever. It must open the gates of every field of 
thought. It must deal with mass movements and 
the psychological forces back of them. It must 
clarify public opinion and create public conscience. 
Above all the humanistic message must have the 
approval of the preacher’s whole being. Mental 
and emotional reservations are alike dishonest. The 
crucifixion of intellect or emotion is the negation 
of life and the will to death. The message of the 
new preacher must be the life of his whole being 
translated in living words. No matter how great 
the price, the preacher must be true to this vision 
of a living message. | 

I would have the church develop a humanistic rit- 
ual also. There should be instituted a liturgy lyri- 
cal and modern, inspirational and creative, rever- 
ential and socially useful. The forms of public re- 
ligious service must be made to reinforce the for- 
ward-looking, independent, creative tendencies of 
the participants and to inhibit the backward-look- 
ing, imitative, dependent tendencies. The readings, 
hymns, prayers, and benedictions of the new service 
must embody contemporary values, interpret emerg- 
ing goals, satisfy the intellect and stir the deepest 
emotions. Where the symbols and imagery of the 
old ritual reinforce credulity and dependence, the 


HUMANIZING THE CHURCH 67 


symbols and imagery of the new ritual will reinforce 
courage and imagination. The new ritual will not 
be less lyrical than the old but it will contribute 
more to the unification of experience. It will not 
be less reverent but more aspirational. It will em- 
body in its content not a world of caprice but a 
world of order. It will synthesize life and give dy- 
namic purpose to the whole of life. It will be inti- 
mately concerned with all social instrumentalities, 
with education and politics, with science and art. 
It will seek not only to interpret these but to guide 
them. It will weave into spiritual devotion all that 
is native to human life. 

I would have a humanistic pew also. A pew 
that knows the past and loves its good but which 
does not cower before its precedents and precepts. 
A pew able to appreciate the machinery of the com- 
monplace but able also to see the utopia of the 
soul. A pew that recognizes and respects honest 
thought, frank utterance, and brave conduct. 

There was a time when the church called the 
world to the “mourner’s bench.” Then the church 
proclaimed an inspiring and commanding gospel of 
an other-world-order yet to be. That gospel has 
long since lost its power; and we now behold the 
appalling spectacle of the church at the “mourner’s 
bench” begging the world for recognition and sup- 
port. I long to see the church regain its old position 
of power: but this cannot be unless the church rec- 
ognizes that for thinking people the old dogmas 


68 HUMANISM 


are dead. The humanistic church will weave the 
Godhood of Life, the Brotherhood of Man, and 
the Conscious Co-operation of persons with Life 
Processes into a ringing, impelling gospel of a ate 
order yet to be. 

The old issues tied up with the philosophy of an 
other-world order being no longer vital for thinking 
people, the church must now decide what it wants 
to become. 

Is the church to become a “free church” only, or 
is it to become a church with a humanistic purpose 
also? It is possible to build a church made up of 
people of opposing types of mind, of contradictory 
interpretations of life, and of contrary programs of 
social and religious action. The question is not one 
of possibility, but of desirability. Would a church 
that is merely free be worth the energy required to 
hold it together? Should people who want to be 
effective in great movements of the world devote 
time, means, and energy to the maintenance of an 
institution which if merely free must withhold itself 
from active participation in the great movements of 
the world? 

Ts the church to become an institution of the “sci- 
entific spirit’’ only, or is it to become the church of 
the humanistic movement also? The scientific spirit 
is that of unbiased judgment, but unbiased judg- 
ment is a travesty when it leads to continuous re-ex- 
amination of that which the scientific method has 
long since left behind. There is no good reason for 


HUMANIZING THE CHURCH 69 


an unbiased attitude toward things the world has 
outgrown. On the contrary, there is every reason 
for uncompromising opposition toward re-establish- 
ing or wasting much time reconsidering things the 
world has outgrown. 

I hasten to say that the free church idea and the 
scientific spirit, if properly understood, are both 
highly admirable. However, they are. not ends to 
be enjoyed, but rather forces to be wielded; not 
goals to be proclaimed, but conditions the reality 
of which may soon be assumed for most modern 
churches. But if the scientific spirit and the free 
church idea were universal in churches that alone 
would guarantee neither purpose nor goals. We 
say that America is a free country, but we know 
that its freedom would not justify the government 
in employing representatives to teach autocracy. By 
American freedom we mean opportunity to experi- 
ment in democracy. ‘There are certain general at- 
titudes toward life within which there may be no 
end of freedom, but freedom becomes a tragedy 
when it leads to the support of contradictory atti- 
tudes toward life. Ecclesiastical freedom becomes a 
tragedy when it leads to a condition in which in one 
church is preached the gospel of mutual considera- 
tion and love, and in another the methods of fang 
and claw; or in one church is preached the gospel 
of the necessity for social change, and in another 
the sacredness of the status quo; or in one church 
an attempt is being made intelligently to interpret 


70 HUMANISM 


and direct life in harmony with growing ideals, and 
in another is being tried every conceivable “‘psycho- 
logical shortcut”? to knowledge, power, and happi- 
ness. 

If the issue between becoming a church that is 
merely free or becoming a church with a purpose, 
between becoming a church of the scientific spirit 
only or becoming the church of the humanistic 
movement, were clearly drawn, I doubt if any large 
percentage of the rank and file of church members 
would be willing to be found in the “calm little eddy 
or backwater’ of the world’s life where the former 
force the church. 

The church should become an institution with a 
humanistic purpose. But this cannot be accom- 
plished simply by passing resolutions, nor by official 
pronouncement, nor by becoming a society for the - 
propagation of “panaceas” and “cure-alls,’’ nor by 
surrendering local autonomy and pulpit freedom. 
But it can be accomplished by the united effort of 
forward-looking souls, who through the months 
and years strive diligently to create an ecclesiastical 
atmosphere in which humanistic sympathy and 
thought and action can thrive. 


tf 
I would have the church become a creator of 
humanistic sympathy. Among the first recognized 
functions of a church is that of creating righteous 


HUMANIZING THE CHURCH FES 


sentiments, but to be righteous in the modern sense, 
sentiments must be polarized. It is not merely arous- 
ing the emotion of sympathy, but the creation of the 
sentiment of humanistic sympathy that is needed 
today. By humanistic sympathy is meant a predis- 
position for humanistic experiments. A corollary 
is predisposition for uncompromising opposition 
toward autocratic tendencies and institutions. My 
thought is that the church should so function that 
people would instinctively expect favorable com- 
ment, argument, and leadership in behalf of human- 
istic movements. 

Shall the church be left behind all other institu- 
tions in spiritual and social pioneering? It will be 
so unless we re-examine our basic sympathies and 
attitudes, and when found autocratic, repent with 
deep sorrow. The church speaks feelingly of the 
ancient values and is predisposed toward celebration 
of past events. Too frequently the eye of the church 
has been turned toward the past. Too often the 
church has conserved, inhibited, and repressed. Now 
there are signs of a new viewpoint. Many denomi- 
nations are undergoing a change of heart and are 
in at least a friendly mood toward democratic move- 
ments. To test our sympathies, let us find out how 
we feel about the self-determination of peoples, 
about racial discrimination, about self-control in in- 
dustry, about social responsibility for education, 
health, housing and the like. If the church finds its 
sympathies unawakened by the thought of present 


Pid HUMANISM 


wrongs, and its enthusiasms unkindled by the 
thought of social well being, then only deepest re- 
pentance, open confession, and thorough regenera- 
tion can save its soul. 


I] 


I would have the church become a mobihzing 
agent of humanistic thought. Sympathy must be- 
come articulate. Thought must be organized. Never 
was there more need than now for the organization 
of thought. The old philosophical and theological 
and sociological catagories have collapsed under the 
strain of complex modern conditions. Basic con- 
cepts and mental attitudes are changing. But peo- 
ple will ever desire a philosophical basis for their 
conscious co-operation with cosmic processes. 

Here is opportunity for the church to regain its 
lost intellectual leadership. Once the church was 
the intellectual center of the community. It com- 
manded the respect of most thinking people. While 
this is no longer true, except in rare instances, there 
is no good reason why it should not again become 
true. The world will not be satisfied with disor- 
ganized thought. Sane living demands orderly 
thinking. In the days when evolutionary thought 
was new the outstanding scholars and preachers 
bravely applied evolutionary thought to theology 
and the spiritual life. Once again there is oppor- 
tunity for ministers to prove their line of succession 


HUMANIZING THE CHURCH Te 


from worthy seers, by championing the growing 
humanistic interpretation of life. The humaniza- 
tion of philosophy and theology is among the next 
steps in organized thought. Likewise ethics, edu- 
cation, and the human impulses must be humanized. 
I do not see how any man who has caught the vision 
of humanism, who sympathizes with the longings 
and aspirations of humanity today, can be content 
to think and speak and write in a way that contrib- 
utes to the defeat of humanism for, in my opinion, 
the success of humanism requires that we outgrow 
every vestige of autocratic thinking and every ves- 
tige of autocratic terminology. 


Ill 


I would have the church become a director of 
sympathy and thought into humanistic conduct. One 
of the battles of religion early in the last century 
was to secure the recognition of religion in all good 
thought. The battle now is to translate good feel- 
ing and thinking into good conduct. If our sym- 
pathy and thinking are right, how can we refrain 
from following them into the arena of world activ- 
ity! How can we be mere onlookers where battles 
for basic human rights are fought! How can we be 
content to rest at ease while our brothers and sisters 
fight for a loaf of bread and a place to call home! 
Any church that hesitates to stand for practical 


74 HUMANISM 


humanism has not yet achieved a soul; pious pro- 
fessions to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The honored pulpits of the past resounded with 
ringing human appeals, among them for the free- 
dom of the bodies of four million black men, for a 
sober country and a stainless flag. The spirits of 
twelve million black men are yet in shackles. Sixty- 
five percent of the people in America live with only 
a contingent wage between them and utter poverty. 
Twenty-five percent of the boys who responded to 
the selective draft could neither read a newspaper 
nor write a letter home. Children are dying with 
unspeakable rapidity. Disease and inadequate treat- 
ment slay vastly more than war. Is the church of 
today to stand idly by while charlatans and profiteers 
and demagogues and blind leaders of the blind 
plunge the world, so recently roseate with hope, back 
into the darkness of an anarchistic age? The issue 
today is back to anarchy, autocracy, imperialism, or 
forward to order, fellowship, democracy. On this 
the greatest issue of the ages, where is the church 
to stand? 

I would have the church sympathetic toward, 
thoughtful about, and active in behalf of the follow- 
ing humanistic policies: 

Universal cultural education, in addition to any 
specialization. 

Promotion of health, by requiring minimum 
standards of living and assuring adequate instruc- 
tion and treatment for all. 


HUMANIZING THE CHURCH 75 


Abolition of child labor and the imposition of 
strict limitations on the labor of young people, 
women, and aged men. 

Social insurance against misfortune, accident, un- 
employment, illness, improvident motherhood, old 
age, and death. 

Provision of long time and low rate funds for 
home builders, and consequent encouragement of 
family life. 

Optional parenthood, involving access to infor- 
mation that makes this possible. 

Right of labor to negotiate collectively through 
chosen representatives. 

Industrial democracy, involving equitable partici- 
pation of labor in control, rewards, and ownership 
of industry. 

Technical improvement in methods of produc- 
tion and distribution, resulting simultaneously in 
increase of commodities and decrease of labor. 

Freedom of Speech, Press, and Assemblage. 

Priority of Personal over Property rights. 

Equitable participation in rights and duties, re- 
gardless of race or sex as such. 

Creation of Machinery by which governments can 
be democratically controlled. 

World federation of peoples based on mutual 
abrogation of special concessions and mutual obli- 
gation to general service. 


PART X 


HUMANIZING DEMOCRACY 


HE races, religions and nations of the world are 

interrelated and interdependent. Miscellaneous 
temperaments, and ideas, traditions and standards of 
living are thrown together; and the realization of 
the best in any one of these requires co-operation 
of the best in all of them. The old ignorance of 
one people in regard to the temperament, ideas, tra- 
ditions and standards of other peoples is passing 
away. The old relationships between races, relig- 
ions, and nationalities, characterized by apprehen- 
sion, scorn and injustice, are beginning to be re- 
placed with relationships based on the world-wide 
community of interests. 

We now know that the lowliest tribes have native 
virtues needed by the most cultured civilizations; 
that exchange of values is as essential to civiliza- 
tion as is the creation of values; that democracy 
between individuals must grow into democracy be- — 
tween races, religions, and nations; that every cul- 
ture must have equal opportunity to develop the 
best that is in it and to make its special contribution 
to the life of the world. 


HUMANIZING DEMOCRACY 77 


Having begun to think and write and speak in 
terms of world civilization we shall never again be 
satisfied with the old provincialism. And if we are 
to escape the old mistakes and hatreds we must 
understand that an enduring world civilization can- 
not be builded on likenesses alone but that differ- 
ences also must be builded into the structure. We 
cannot build a world civilization by ignoring nor 
by scorning nor by fusing differences; we may 
build a world civilization if we not only develop 
likenesses but also encourage contact and interplay 
and integration of differences. World unity is not 
the given. It is to be achieved. Leagues of nations, 
of religions, and of races are not examples of world 
unity; but such organizations are most promising 
methods of achieving world unity. Back of all 
effective efforts to build the world of tomorrow 
must be not only the dynamic and creative but also 
the tolerant and receptive type of mind. 


I. INTER-RACIAL SYMPATHY MAKES FOR WoRLD 
DEMOCRACY 


For some weeks I lived in a home with persons 
of various races and nationalities—English, Ger- 
man, French, Jewish, Australian, Peruvian, Filipino, 
and just plain American. So far as I was aware, 
no negro resided within the building, though several 


78 HUMANISM 


performed important duties about the place. Among 
the dwellers in this Manor there seemed no fear of 
contamination from inter-racial housing; but I fre- 
quently noted a prejudice against other races in the 
abstract (that is, races as classed in the encyclope- 
dia) on the part of persons who exhibited no preju- 
dice against other races in the concrete (that is, 
races as known in the household). While racial 
prejudice is at the bottom of many of the catastro- 
phes of the world, it is based not on experience but 
on presuppositions due largely to accidental social 
arrangements. Defeated in war, not by inherent 
superiority of the enemy, but by accident of numbers 
or position, ancient groups were forced into slavery ; 
thus they became socially taboo. With the pres- 
sure of years came depression of spirit, which, in 
turn, was pointed to as evidence of racial inferiority. 
Some such process as this is sufficient to account 
for racial prejudice. I see nothing in color of skin, 
structure of hair, and the like that indicates inher- 
ent racial inferiority or superiority. Nor do aver- 
ages count for much. All that can safely be said is 
that in every race there are individuals who are 
better or worse than some individuals in other races. 
To find the average racial value is as impossible as 
it is to find the average parental love. 

Democracy is but a dream so long as any person 
on account of race or color is denied any right or 
freed from any duty generally allowed to or re- 
quired of those of another race or color. 


HUMANIZING DEMOCRACY 79 


I know of nothing more unforunate nor more 
detrimental to human progress than race prejudice. 

In our best moments we rise above the lines that 
separate peoples from peoples. We must make these 
universal. Some years ago in a large religious con- 
vention in the south, on the last day the several 
thousand in attendance stood and sang 


Blest be the tie that binds 
Our hearts in Christian love. 


and as they sang they joined hands. There was only 
one break in that vast audience; a break between 
two clergymen—one black and the other white. As 
the singing proceeded the white man saw his black 
brother throw back his kinky head, open his great 
mouth and break forth in the words 


The fellowship of kindred hearts is like to that 
above. 


Tien the white man placed his hand in that of his 
black brother and the union was complete. And 
the great audience continued, 


Before our father’s throne we pour our ardent 
prayers, 

Gur hopes, our fears, our aims are one, 

Our comforts and our tears. 


80 HUMANISM 


Il. INTER-RELIGIOUS FELLOWSHIP MAKES FOR 
WoRLD DEMOCRACY 


Few things divide the human race more than re- 
ligion. Religion divides into ethnic groups; these 
into divisions like Catholics and Protestants; and 
these in turn into sects and schisms. Most people 
inherit their religion. They are what they are 
through no choice of their own, save the simple 
desire to be what their fathers were. ‘There are 
exceptions, but this is the rule. While most peo- 
ple are what they are by chance, still many people 
regard others as unforgivably wrong for being dif- 
ferent. The cure for this condition is in the inter- 
mingling of religions. To know the adherents of 
another religion is to grow tolerance and under- 
standing. 

Unless [ am a slave to my own views of religion 
I can appreciate my neighbor’s view. Unless I am 
tied by chains of bigotry to my own altar occasion- 
ally I can look out upon life from my neighbor’s 
altar. In no way should my views on religion stand 
between me and my fellow man. Bigotry and intol- 
erance die hard, but they must die if brotherhood 
is to rule the world. Fortunately there is a growing — 
spirit of fellowship in religion; we should and do 
welcome this spirit; and we must pledge our very 


HUMANIZING DEMOCRACY Sl 


best endeavor to bring about a closer fellowship 
between the denominations of Christendom and the 
religions of the world. 


Ill. INTERNATIONAL PATRIOTISM MAKES FOR 
WorRLD DEMOCRACY 


A state of mind in which we become zealous for 
the rights of all nations may be called international 
patriotism. Such a patriotism is gradually develop- 
ing. We are coming to understand that in supreme 
tests religious and racial and national differences 
are superficial; and that under the skin and beneath 
the artificial difference is a common, persistent, 
glorious humanity having rights in all nations. In- 
ternational patriotism is a prerequisite to any hope- 
ful program of world politics. Without it federa- 
tions fall to pieces and sacred vows become scraps 
of paper. Without international patriotism deep 
and abiding the world will remain an armed camp, 
and the shrieks of cannon-balls will rend the air. 
I plead for the brotherhood of nations—the patriot- 
ism of humanity. Never was such patriotism more 
needed than now, never was it more promising than 
now. 


The world must gradually be organized on the 
basis of world patriotism. We get what we organ- 
ize for. If we organize for war we get war; if we 


82 HUMANISM 


organize for brotherhood, we get brotherhood. Let 
there be no mistake on this point. The world is 
capable of planning and creating its future. 

Now is the time to think and talk and preach and 
write for internationalism. The thought of the 
world is turning in that direction. This issue is now 
the dividing line between men and policies. The 
contests of the immediate future will be waged 
around this issue. Shall the nations remain as they 
have been, armed camps, each seeking to outdo the 
other, each seeking its own individual and selfish 
aims? Or, shall the nations be woven into one 
splendid brotherhood, each seeking the good of all? 

All the humane and brotherly principles for which 
religion has ever stood are involved in this settle- 
ment; justice, peace, good-will, love—all point to 
the brotherhood of man, the Federation of the 
World. For religion to fail to hold up its high 
ideals now is to fail in its supreme duty. As a min- 
istering agent, the church has made good during 
these trying times, but as a prophetic body it has, 
with but few exceptions, failed miserably. But we 
have had the supreme awakening. We now see that 
narrow individualism must give way to broad fra- 
ternalism; that local remedies must be supplemented 
by world programs. 

And in this movement for a new world order, 
America must not fail to lend a helping hand. In 
America we have all the races of mankind repre- 
sented. We are developing a world spirit. We 


HUMANIZING DEMOCRACY 83 


have few international memories and troubles to 
hinder us. We have promoted a large measure of 
justice and prosperity at home; and we must now 
co-operate with others in extending these blessings 
to the remotest borders of the world. We have 
led in peace movements. We have led in the sign- 
ing of peace treaties. We sent the first case to the 
Hague Court, secured the permanency of that court, 
and introduced the most important bills. Before 
the beginning of the world war we had offered 
practically an unlimited arbitration treaty to the 
great nations. Our disposition and experience fit 
us for an important part in this concert of nations 
in behalf of world civilization. 

Among the vast amount of war literature is a lit- 
tle book in which is told the story of an American 
boy who went to Europe to fight. Like thousands 
of others, he hated till hate ate at his soul and he 
saw nothing but evil in his opponents. Came the 
time when the boy fell in battle; “fell and felt no 
pain; only struggle as he might, he could not rise; 
something did not connect.”” The battle raged. The 
young man saw a Jew working his way among the 
fallen. A dying Irishman called for the crucifix, 
and the Rabbi, grabbing that symbol of faith—not 
his own—held it before the dying eyes, and as he 
held it a shell burst and the Rabbi lay dead, the 
Irishman in his arms and the cross of Christ in his 
hands. The American boy lapsed into unconscious- 
ness; later he awakened and suffered and lapsed 


84 HUMANISM 


again. When he next came to himself he lay com- 
fortably on a cot, but soon he was shaken with re- 
pulsion, for a boy next to him talked German. 


The German boy stirred, woke, set his teeth as 
he twisted with pain; but he smiled through his 
pain into the American’s face. Our boy was moved 
but love had not yet won. He turned his face. On 
the other side of him lay a grizzled haggard man 
of fifty-five whose face was concentrated in endur- 
ance. It seemed that with one ounce more of pain 
the will would break and he would scream. But 
the will held and slowly the muscles relaxed. The 
man talked English but his accent was German. 
There our boy lay between two enemies—no, not 
enemies, but brothers. A little mutual service, a lit- . 
tle better understanding, and these three sick sol- 
diers were one in spirit, and without any hate in his 
soul our American boy went to sleep, hearing the 
Prussian soldier repeating his simple creed for the 
last time and in English, too! 


All through life, I see a cross, 

Where sons of God yield up their breath; 
There is no gain except by loss; 

There is no life except by death; 

There is no vision but by faith 

Nor glory but by bearing shame; 

Nor justice but by taking blame. 


And so it is always, as we know each other bet- 
ter we come to understand. And I dare say that 


HUMANIZING DEMOCRACY 85 


when we come to understand life a little better, we 
shall see that Shelley was right when he said: 


Nothing in the world is single, 
All things by a law divine 
In one another’s being mingle. 





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